Today, September 11, 2015, Slayer’s long-awaited 12th studio album Repentless (Nuclear Blast), is released and available to fans. Launching with glowing early reviews – “Metal Album of the Year” (Guitar World), “Slayer continues to reign” (Kerrang!), “as unrelenting as all of their 11 previous” (SPIN), “the sound of Slayer telling you that it still recognizes its essence” (New York Times), and “a potent release that is undeniably Slayer” (Loudwire), the band is showing they are, as the British daily The Guardian put it, “still the masters of this stuff.”

Slayer’s ‘Repentless’

The first music video from Repentless, the title track, also makes its global premiere today at Rolling Stone ( http://rol.st/1K1Id21 ) The video was shot late last month at the Sybil Brand Institute in East Los Angeles and is a grizzly depiction of what the Kerry King-created word means: to feel no regret or remorse. Slayer performed the song in the prison yard while a riot broke out, blood flowed in abundance, and inmates and prison guards were slaughtered. Directed by BJ McDonnell and produced by Felissa Rose, the video features cameos by actors who have been part of some of the most iconic horror films ever made: Danny Trejo (“Machete,” “From Dusk Till Dawn”), Tony Moran (“Halloween’s” Michael Myers, “American Poltergeist”), Derek Mears (“Predators,” “Friday the 13th”) Tyler Mane (“Halloween”) Jason Trost (“Hatchet III”), Sean Whalen (“Men In Black,” “Halloween II”), and Vernon Wells (“Mad Max 2,” “Commando,” “Weird Science”).

This is McDonnell’s first stint directing a music video. He directed the 2013 horror film “Hatchet III,” and his rich resume as a motion picture cameraman includes “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Ant-Man” and “The Interview.” For the “Repentless” video, McDonnell and Rose brought in stunt coordinator Nils Allen Stewart who is known for his work on films like “Planet of The Apes,” “Anger Management” and “Daredevil.”

Repentless was produced and mixed by Terry Date and recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles. The album is Slayer’s first release since 2009’s World Painted Blood, and features band members Tom Araya (vocals/bass), Kerry King (guitars), Paul Bostaph (drums), and Exodus/Slayer touring guitarist Gary Holt.

With the title and release date just announced for Slayer’sRepentless, due out September 11, 2015 (Nuclear Blast), today the thrash icons announce their heaviest release ever – literally – Repentless, Metal Eagle Edition. Made of aluminum alloy, measuring 15″ X 17″ X 3″ and weighing in at a hefty seven pounds, the Metal Eagle Edition will house a deluxe digipak of the new Repentless CD plus exclusive bonus content to be detailed soon. The limited (only 3000 copies worldwide) and numbered Metal Eagle Edition will be a direct-to-consumer item and available exclusively via the Nuclear Blast mail-order online stores. Pre-orders are available now, so log onto http://nblast.de/SlayerRepentlessEagle for purchasing info.

The highly-anticipated Repentless is Slayer’s 11th studio album, the first since 2009’s critically-acclaimed, Grammy-nominated World Painted Blood and the first with producer Terry Date (Pantera, Slipknot, Soundgarden). The band – Tom Araya/bass, vocals, Kerry King/guitar, Paul Bostaph/drums, and Exodus/Slayer touring guitarist Gary Holt, who recorded lead guitar parts for about a half-dozen of the album’s new tracks – started recording Repentless in March 2014, and made the track “Implode” available as a free download in April of that year. The band and Date continued to record between September 2014 and mid-January 2015 at Henson Studios in Los Angeles. For the album, “Implode” was completely re-recorded from the ground up, and “When The Stillness Comes,” used as an instrumental track in a Scion commercial, got a revamped intro and all new vocals.

Repentless also includes “Piano Wire,” an unfinished song from the World Painted Blood sessions written by Hanneman. About the track, Rolling Stone wrote that it “…begins with an eerie guitar line before evolving into a full-on-doom (and classic Slayer) riff onslaught…” King put it this way: “When I hear it, I think ‘Jeff.’ It sounds like a Jeff Hanneman song.”

The 12-track Repentless is, according to those who have heard it, a sonic assault of brutal, ominous, lightening-fast and heavy-as-hell music with lyrics that unmask what Slayer knows best – the terror, the corruption and the societal turmoil that dominates our world.

“The new album sounds like Slayer,” said Araya. “In the past, our fans have always known what to expect, this time they don’t. But we really like it, and I don’t think the fans are going to be disappointed.”

As is expected from Slayer, the band will support the release of Repentless with extensive touring across the globe, beginning this summer when the band headlines the Mayhem Festival. That tour kicks off June 26 at Sleep Train Amphitheater in San Diego, CA. The complete routing is below.

Metal legends Slayer have revealed they will be releasing their first album since the death of founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman. The album is set for release on September 11th is titled ‘Repentless’ and will be released via Nuclear Blast.

The news was revealed today (May 22) with a YouTube video. Check it out below:

“When The Stillness Comes,”the first new track from SLAYER in nearly a year, will be available as part of Record Store Day on April 18, it is announced today by Slayer and Nuclear Blast. The song, accompanied by a live recording of “Black Magic,” from the band’s 1983 album Show No Mercy and recorded live at the 2014 Wacken Open Air Festival, will be available as a limited-edition (only 5000 copies worldwide), 7-inch vinyl picture disc exclusively at all participating independent record stories worldwide. Log onto www.recordstoreday.com for the list of stores.

Slayer – Tom Araya, Kerry King and Paul Bostaph – recorded “When The Stillness Comes” last year in Los Angeles with producer Terry Date. Currently, the band is in the final stages of recording what will be its first new album since 2009’s Grammy-nominated World Painted Blood, which is expected out later this year.

ABOUT SLAYER:

The Chicago Tribune‘s Greg Kot wrote that the five-time-nominated, two-time Grammy winning Slayer is “one of the great American rock bands of the last 30 years, forget about genre.” Their membership in “The Big Four” – Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax – the four bands that defined the thrash/metal genre – secures their place in music history. Indeed, few bands come close to matching the intensity that Slayer brings to its live shows, having been named “Best Live Band” by numerous media outlets including Revolver, SPIN, and Metal Hammer. With songs that mirror the turmoil and aberrations of our society – God’s terrifying global genocide, the chaos of our broken political system, chemical warfare, the hideous minds of serial killers, and the way-too-close proximity of world horrors that technology has brought us, Slayer remains crushing and brutal, steadfastly refusing to cater to the Mainstream. Slayer’s founding member, guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed in 2013, and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt has been filling in since. Paul Bostaph, who was Slayer’s drummer from ’94 – ’01, has rejoined bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and guitarist Kerry King, and is back behind the kit. Slayer is currently in the studio recording a new album set for a 2015 release.